diff --git a/unittest/formats/CMakeLists.txt b/unittest/formats/CMakeLists.txt
index 93ea2f3b327..58c797b6e63 100644
--- a/unittest/formats/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/unittest/formats/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ set_tests_properties(TextFileReader PROPERTIES ENVIRONMENT "LAMMPS_POTENTIALS=${
 add_executable(test_file_operations test_file_operations.cpp)
 target_link_libraries(test_file_operations PRIVATE lammps GTest::GMock)
 add_test(NAME FileOperations COMMAND test_file_operations)
+# try to mitigate possible OpenMPI bug
+set_tests_properties(TextFileReader PROPERTIES ENVIRONMENT "OMPI_MCA_sharedfp=\"^sm\"")
 
 add_executable(test_dump_atom test_dump_atom.cpp)
 target_link_libraries(test_dump_atom PRIVATE lammps GTest::GMock)